Dehan Dikum!!!
How is everyone doing? Good, I hope. It’s that time for another update of life here in Ethiopia, and what a week it has been!
Last time we chatted (or more accurately, I chatted at you), was last Monday afternoon. Tuesday started like any other day. I went to the office, sat around for a little while before I got bored and decided to work on my CNA at home. As I may have mentioned before, my primary objective for the first three months of my time here at site is to conduct a CNA, or Community Needs Assessment. This is a report where I do a lot of research and interview community members in order to assess the environmental needs of the community and come up with potential projects for the next two years. The report is very important for helping me integrate into my community and to get an idea of what I’ll be doing in the future. On my way home, I decided to check my P.O. Box, but, as usual, it was empty. Imagine my surprise then, when I got home and my friend called to tell me I had a package! I almost ran back to the Post Office in my excitement and, sure enough, there was a package from my parents that hadn’t been processed yet. Including stuff in the second package I got from them yesterday, I got candy (skittles, sour punch straws, gushers, fruit snacks, air heads), chips, seasonings, and much more. You can imagine how excited I was to finally be receiving mail!
After my high finally wore off, I felt inspired and got to work on my CNA. I’m still in the research phase, so I wrote up the interview I was going to use to gather my information. I brought the questions to the office the next day and went over them with my counterpart and supervisor, who both thought the questions were thorough and comprehensive. I proceeded to interview my counterpart that same day and just like that my data collection had started. That afternoon I also visited the prepatory school again. It felt good to have accomplished something since the week would be cut short by the holiday celebrated most in this area: Timkat.
“Timkat” means epiphany. The holiday celebrates the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, where the dove descended from heaven and a voice from the heavens exclaimed, “This is my beloved son, in who I am well pleased” and everyone around realized that Jesus was more than an ordinary man. It is an important holiday all over Ethiopia, but it seems to be especially important and celebrated in Southern Tigray. Celebrations began late Thursday for some, and by Friday the holiday was in full swing with the biggest celebrations on Saturday. Andrew, the volunteer just south of me in the small town of Endodo came up for the holiday. Friday celebrations consisted mostly of a trip down to the church for service in the morning, where we listened to the priests preach in the spiritual language of Ge’ez and were sprayed with blessed water (to celebrate the baptism). The rest of the day was taken up by lots of socializing and, of course, lots of eating. A big topic of conversation was Saturday, which promised dancing in the streets, lots of celebrating, and traditional wrestling. Saturday did not disappoint.
I woke up Saturday morning super excited about what was to come. I had decided I wanted some Ethiopian clothes to blend in better for the holiday, so I decided to buy the traditional Raya outfit (Raya is this area of Southern Tigray) which consists of a gildim and boffet… The outfit is awesome and I will upload pictures of it to my Facebook soon. After dressing in my traditional clothing, I met my friend Getachew and began heading down the main road to the church at the northern end of town to begin celebrating…. We didn’t get very far. Everyone in Maychew was coming up from that church in a huge dancing procession on their way to St. Mikael’s church on the other end of town. Everyone was dancing, singing, and otherwise having a good time. It was the biggest celebration I’d seen so far in Ethiopia and it was amazing fun. I took videos and pictures, which will, of course, be uploaded to Facebook as well. The rest of the day was just spent dancing, eating, celebrating, and religious celebrations. I didn’t get a chance to see the traditional wrestling, unfortunately, but there’s always next year for that. By 6 in the evening I was exhausted and decided to skip the concert and hang out with some of the fam at home.
I thought I’d be able to rest up on Sunday, but then I remembered that I had a wedding to attend! I’d been invited to one by a friend and of course I wanted to go. The wedding ceremonies here are more of a celebration than a solemn ceremony like in the US. On the morning of the wedding, two parties are prepared, one at the house of the bride and the other at the house of the groom. The bride is in her house until the groom comes to pick her up in a huge procession of cars sometimes that day. When the groom arrives to pick up the bride, they have the first party complete with dancing, food, and celebrations. Once they have had enough there, they all pile in the cars and proceed to drive to the grooms’ house. They drive all through the town, honking the cars and letting as many people as possible know they are wedding. From there, they arrive at the grooms’ house for the second party, where they eat more, dance more, and celebrate even more. A short and private ceremony is held where the rings are exchanged and the promises made, and then it’s back to celebrating. Interestingly, the bride looks very glum and upset the entire day. In Ethiopia the bride is expected to be sad at her wedding, because while she is indeed starting a new life, she is also leaving her family behind and is expecting to mourn for this loss accordingly. Whenever the happy new couple has had enough, they head out for their wedding night. Traditionally, there are more customs associated with this part of the wedding, but those are a little graphic for this blog. If you’re interested in what happens there, ask me about it sometime.
And that just about brings us to today. Work has been a little slow because my counterpart is in the field, so I have just been preparing for more interviews and exploring more of Maychew. I seem to find a new corner of the city every day. As always, I miss and love everyone back in the states terribly. Hit me up whenever you have time and thanks for reading!
Ciao!
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